Hospital where you will now go
If you live in Maidstone area
and need a hospital now that both Maidstone
and Tunbridge Wells (Pembury) hospitals are fully operational where can you
normally expect to go? In most instances it will still be Maidstone Hospital.
Please
note that most hospitals are now increasingly the home of specialised centres
of expertise and they may be advised to have care there – or be taken there in
an emergency.
This is the MASH advice for the most important services after consulting Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Maidstone Hospital
A&E – Maidstone A&E is fully operational 24 hours every day
(averaging 1,100 patients a week) and you should go there or request an
ambulance to take you there for almost all treatments, including simple
fractures but now excluding serious trauma cases. The ambulance service says while patients are
taken to their nearest A&E clinical needs are most important and patients
may be taken further to a centre of excellence.
HEART ATTACKS (CAR-DIAC ARRESTS)
are usually taken to Maidstone A&E
prior to care in Maidstone
Hospital. On occasions an
ambulance will take a patient straight to a specialist cardiac centre. Nearest
to Maidstone is William Harvey, Ashford.
STROKES – initially patients are taken to Maidstone A&E. Maidstone
now has a dedicated stroke unit providing immediate urgent care and
rehabilitation.
CHILDREN - Specialist inpatient care patients go to Pembury – and such
children taken to Maidstone are stabilised
before transfer to Pembury. A short-stay
paediatric day-care ward now operates at Maidstone
8am-8pm Monday to Friday and this unit also provides all outpatient
care.
MATERNITY. Now maternity
services have been transferred to Pembury there is just a midwife-led birthing
unit at Maidstone. Antenatal and post natal check-ups are
available at Maidstone and in the
community. The Early Pregnancy
Assessment Unit is based at Maidstone (temporarily at Pembury).
PLANNED SURGERY. Complex
inpatient operations, with the exception of inpatient orthopaedic procedures
and ear/nose/throat, are perform-ed at Maidstone,
now the area’s centre of expertise for this surgery. This can range from cancer to eye
surgery. Maidstone
has a purpose-built laparoscopic theatre for specialist minimal invasive
(keyhole) surgery ranging from major gastro-intestinal surgery to hernias.
PLANNED DAY SURGERY (the majority of all types of routine planned
day operations) continues at Maidstone as well
as Pembury so most people are treated locally.
CANCER/CHEMOTHERAPY. Maidstone continues as the regional cancer centre based
in Kent Oncology Centre.
CHRONIC PAIN. Maidstone is now the main chronic pain treatment centre
in the trust.
DIABETES. The diabetes
centre continues to operate at Maidstone.
OPHTHALMOLOGY – Maidstone
continues as the trust’s main ophthalmic centre.
EAR, NOSE, THROAT – Outpatient care is still available at Maidstone with Pembury still the main ENT centre.
Tunbridge Wells
Hospital, Pembury
These are the key
services which were previously available at Maidstone and now transferred to Tunbridge Wells Hospital
at Pembury.
TRAUMA– Serious trauma cases are now taken to a centre of
excellence for specialist surgery, normally Pembury. Previously these were taken to Maidstone
A&E.
OTHER EMERGENCY GENERAL SURGERY is
also conducted at Pembury. This could
include broken hips and other joints, appendicitis… A patient first taken to Maidstone
needing urgent surgery will be stabilised and transferred by ambulance to a
specialist hospital.
WOMEN/MATERNITY. This
includes inpatient care for maternity and gynaecology.
CHILDREN needing inpatient care and the special care baby unit.
ELECTIVE ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY - pre-planned inpatient surgery for
such as knee and hip replacements., shoulder and elbow is carried out in the
new purpose-built orthopaedic centre.
Getting advice
The trust
says your GP will advise on care choices and location and hospital consultants
on treatment options. Ambulance crews
aim to go to the nearest hospital – but select the most appropriate hospital
for emergencies.